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Moving objects make hummingbirds wobble mid-flight

By Flora Graham

Video: Trippy spiral hacks a hummingbird’s hover

If a sipping hummingbird starts to wobble when near a flower, it’s probably not because its nectar has been spiked. A moving view, like a trippy morphing spiral, seems to be enough to make it lose its stability (see video above).

To investigate how Anna’s hummingbirds control their body position, Douglas Altshuler and his team at the University of British Columbia in Canada set up a hummingbird bar in front of a screen with moving patterns. The group found that even minimal background movement affected the birds’ hovering, causing them to wobble back and forth while feeding or to jam their bills in too far, depending on the direction of motion.

Given that the birds’ natural environment is full of moving elements, it is surprising how sensitive they are to movement in their visual field, says the team. Little is known about how birds use their senses to control flight.